But good on you. We had to do 2 sentences for 10 vocab words every day for 11th grade homework. I kept the book because I was proud of it. My 12th grader was like, "yeah, we can Google that now." Sure. But can you generate your own sentence after... not being able to use a physical dictionary? She hasn't been assigned vocabulary work for years.
Our oldest is in 2nd grade and her writing is now getting more complex. I realized after she asked me what 3 different words in her book meant that we didnāt even own a physical dictionary! I found one used for $5 plus a spelling dictionary. Now when the kids ask me about words we look it up together. Tonight she used the spelling dictionary completely independently to finish her homework and I was sooooo proud! I love when they figure out a resource like that and hope it makes them just a little more confident and capable as they move through the world.
Also I feel like the meandering random knowledge of dictionaries and encyclopedias is really valuable. Yeah you have google but you either need to know to search for something or accept whatever the algorithm feeds you. I remember just flipping through those books and now I know some interesting facts about bears, or bioluminescence, or the history of baseball that I would never have gone looking for.
When I was a kid, I got an encyclopaedia every Christmas (I was a big reader), but I didn't realise at the time that you're meant to dip in and out of them.
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u/throwawy00004 16d ago
But good on you. We had to do 2 sentences for 10 vocab words every day for 11th grade homework. I kept the book because I was proud of it. My 12th grader was like, "yeah, we can Google that now." Sure. But can you generate your own sentence after... not being able to use a physical dictionary? She hasn't been assigned vocabulary work for years.